So you might be asking yourself, what is telehealth? Telehealth allows for the examination and treatment of a patient without a physician being physically present. A real-time video link allows you to see and hear the physician and the physician can see and hear you. The visit works the same way as a visit to the doctor’s office.
"Telehealth is going to redefine access to healthcare in the future," Clarke County Hospital Chief Executive Officer Brian Evans said. "For our community, it will expand access to specialty physicians without patients having to leave Clarke County."
Clarke County Hospital Chief Clinical Officer Vic Irvin agrees with her colleague that telehealth will change healthcare for the local facility.
"We are pretty excited and feel the timing is right to move forward," Irvin said. "This is significantly changing how we do things. It is life-improving care. People will no longer have to drive to Des Moines to see a specialist. There are a lot of benefits to the patient and the hospital."
Clarke County Hospital has received two federal grants, a Broadband Technology Opportunites Program and Distance Learning and Telemedicine grant, to help make a vision to enter into a new era of medicine a reality. The funding was used to help purchase video conferencing and related devices that will connect the county hospital to speciality physicians in Des Moines, local sites, such as the senior center, a public health center, three schools and the public library.
Staffing CCH’s telehealth team are Paul Van Ryswyk, Marnie Killip, Kyle Farmer, Katie Patterson and Suzanne Carlson.